Will You Please Pray? (updated)

Hello friends,

I have a couple of big prayer requests to share with you.  As you read through these would you please lift these families (and their waiting babes) up in prayer?

My friend Melissa and her family have been in Mongolia for eight days now and still have not met their precious Katie (age five) who is waiting for them.  Melissa and her family are the first American adoption to take place under Mongolia's new (and yet to be figured out) adoption process.  As of today they were finally granted the interview that they were promised would take place last Wednesday.  The interview is set for tomorrow morning (Tuesday) at 11:00 in Mongolia.  After this interview they will finally be allowed to meet their precious girl.  The following  is a part of Melissa's request from this morning . . .

"After this interview, they will present the results to the whole committee and they will make the final approval. Only after that can we start the finalization paperwork. It takes 3 days for a birth certificate and 2 days for a passport, another 2 days after that for the US visa and we can't even get the Japanese embassy to see us to find out about their visa.

It will take a miracle for us to all go home together! This process is getting more expensive everyday and now we are adding the increased costs of the new airline tickets . . .  Please pray that after our interview tomorrow, we will get a definite time for the final committee meeting that will give us final approval. This meeting needs to happen WEDNESDAY if there will be any way for us all to go home together."

Please pray for favor for Melissa's family.  Pray that the Lord would provide the paperwork miracle that they need so that they may return to Japan (where they are stationed) together- as a family of five. (As opposed to sending dad and the boys back on tickets already purchased, and paying a large sum to change M's and Katie's tickets.)  Pray that their union with Katie would be perfectly blessed despite the stress.  It has been well over two years since they began his adoption process which at the time they were told would take around 9 months . . . it has been a long haul.  Please pray Katie into the arms of her mama!

My second request is for a family in Michigan (friends of my dear sister).  . .

Dave and Rebecca are the parents of five children.  They visited Brazil on a mission trip, and shortly thereafter they felt the Lord calling them back to Brazil to adopt. They thought they would bring home a baby girl, but as His thoughts are higher than ours, the Lord led them to a sibling group of FOUR.  (Three older children approx. 9, 7 & 5, and a baby who is 18 months)  Obediently this family began the paperwork process to bring these four children home to be a part of their family forever.  

This is where the story gets tough . . . Dave (like so many other hard working Americans) has lost his job.  No job = no adoption.  Brazil has given them a deadline of March 12, THIS Thursday, for Dave to find employment (making at least $60,000  a year) or they will halt the adoption.  To make matters worse, the children will be sent from Brazil to Europe, and the baby will be separated from his siblings forever.  Those of you who have adopted understand that for all intents and purposes these babies are already Dave and Rebecca's.  They have their pictures . . . these precious faces are a part of this family of seven's hearts.  Please pray that the Lord would move this mountain on behalf of Dave and Rebecca and their five children, and on behalf of their other four children waiting in Brazil.  This seems huge to us (especially in Michigan's failing economy), but nothing is too big for our really big GOD!

Psalm 68:8 says, "God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those who are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land."

Thank you dear ones for praying.  May your day be blessed!

With love from my nest ~

Tina

Edited to add: My (our) dear friend Linn at A Place Called Simplicity

has suggested we fast all or part of tomorrow as we lift these families up to the Father.  I will be joining her.  If anyone else feels led to do so please join us!

Also, I just talked to my sister, and Dave had a job interview at the end of last week.  They have asked him to come for a second interview, but it is after the deadline set by the Brazilian court.  Dave and Rebecca's agency is asking the Brazilian officials for a little more time, knowing that the courts are very strict.  We know that God is bigger than any of these details.  Please pray that Dave and Rebecca would be granted a grace period, and that Dave would be hired for this job! Thank you bloggy friends, you are the best!  T~